Broken Records and Polaroids
by CynicalHoneyBadger
Summary: {SEQUEL TO CONFUSION- READ THAT FIRST!} After a couple months, Marco thought he'd finally recovered, until his parents had dropped the bombshell that he was returning to the very place that had he had left in such a bad way. Not prepared in the slightest, Marco heads back into the crazy school, but can he face it again? TW: Mentions of mental health problems
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Waterloo Road or any of the characters in the story**

**Sequel time! The setting for this is there's no merger anymore, and the only storyline from series 10 that won't be mentioned is the cyber bullying one some will have changed slightly. :3**

**Chapter 1**

Marco lay on his bed, staring at his camera.

"All of this is bullshit." He mumbled, annoyed at his photos turnout.

He was surprised at how quick his A-Levels dawned on him, it seemed summer flew by with his family in London. Being there from late June to early November, it gave him the chance to sort his head out. He even started driving lessons for his birthday, and was promised a car of his choice from his parents if he passed.

Not that it had been easy, at all. He didn't want to think about the weeks he refused to leave the house because he felt so low.

However, the time finally allowed him to just relax, and be happy. He'd experimented with hair dye, actually dyed his hair blue and had a great time being a normal teenager again. He'd gained a few extra piercings, as well as the larger expander in his ear, he'd gotten his septum pierced and gotten a tattoo sleeve finished, with a "dia del muerto" style to it on the opposite arm to his guitar.

He'd started home tuition, and was feeling like his old self again, much to his parents' relief.

"Marco, when are you going to get up? We woke you up nearly an hour ago." His mum grumbled.

"What's up?" He asked, opening his door.

"Your Dad and I are leaving, you need to get up, and make sure you finish that assignment. We haven't paid for your home tuition for you to sit around all day doing nothing. Remember, your driving test is at 12, don't be late"

"Aye, aye captain!" Marco saluted; receiving a glare from his mother.

He slumped downstairs and sat on the couch, said goodbye to his parents and after taking his pills, Marco spent his morning catching up on missed TV, but while he watched the latest episode of "Geordie Shore" his phone popped up with a calendar notification.

"Leo's Birthday is today!"

Marco just smiled, he forgot how much he overused punctuation, and that he'd even put that in his phone. It brought back so many memories of Greenock. Some were actually good, most weren't great.

"Jeez, it's been a few months." He sighed, he hadn't deleted Leo's number, feeling stupid for not doing so, but a small part of him hoped he would call when he'd gotten the letter.

It wasn't as if Leo had even text him.

He wasn't too bothered anymore, just slightly sad he never replied.

* * *

Sixth form = 10x more stress and homework than before.

Leo really wished the teachers had have told him that so he'd have time to adjust. He was going to drown in homework.

He'd made some friends, though, they didn't have a ton in common, Carrie and Abdul were quite nice, and it took him away from any continuing drama. Though, they weren't really close, they were someone for Leo to talk to. Saying "friends" they were the only people who didn't really make his life a living hell. He thought someone getting stabbed would be enough to make people stop making comments, boy was he wrong.

Though, drama was never too far away, with Justin having yet another girlfriend, his mum and dad working together at the same school, and the usual case of Lisa and Shaznay making everyone's lives hell, he was getting pretty used to it.

He was just fading into the background as usual.

Even on his birthday.

"Happy Birthday Leo!" Justin laughed, handing his brother his card, and opening his presents, he'd gotten quite a bit of money, and a few games and stuff.

Justin almost immediately turned back to his phone to text his new girlfriend, and his Dad was already ready to go to school.

"17, where has the time gone?" Vaughn sighed, giving Leo a hug. "Doesn't mean you get the day off."

"I thought so." Leo rolled his eyes, getting his school bag ready.

"Justin, you know Bonnie is going to be at school. You don't need to talk to her 24/7." Vaughn spoke, ushering the oldest son out of the house.

"So what's the deal with this thing you've been going on about?" Justin asked, putting his phone in his pocket.

"We have some potential funders for the school coming today. They're just representatives, but if we get this funding, it'll be huge for the school."

"A plasma screen TV, and a proper common room for sixth form?" Justin enquired.

"No to the TV's, but we could think about a sixth form common room."

"Awesome, I'll be on my best behaviour." Justin grinned. "These people must be loaded."

"Well they're successful businesses; they want to develop our options for A-Levels too. We could offer more than Havelock if we get this. They want to choose students to hire after their A-Levels or GCSE's too."

"So, like an academy?" Leo asked, sounding disinterested.

"No, they'll have no say on how the school is run, but they'll be able to add more funding to the school. If this goes ahead, there's no chance of the merger going ahead."

The merger was all that was on his Dad's mind. The council wanted to merge Havelock and Waterloo Road, but they seemed like the only ones that wanted it to happen.

"Happy Birthday, mate." Abdul met Leo at his locker. "What did you get?"

"Money and a few PS4 games, and that's just off my Dad and brother."

"Lucky!

"Yeah, it feels no different than being 16." Leo rolled his eyes. "Especially since I'm here. My Dad could have at least given me the day off."

"My Dad's the same." Abdul agreed. "He'd never let me pull a sickie for my birthday."

The two continued to talk as they headed to their first class.

* * *

It had been long enough waiting, and it was finally time for Marco to hear the results of his driving test.

"Congratulations."

"No way! Thanks so much!" Marco grinned, holding the certificate close to him.

He made his way home, and quickly got on the phone to his mum.

"You never guess who's just aced their driving test."

"Really?" His mum replied. "Wow, congratulations."

"You said I could have a car." He said persuasively.

"Fine, we'll go car shopping on Saturday, I and your Dad have to talk with you when we come in in anyway."

"Awesome, see you later." Marco laughed, putting the phone down.

* * *

"Who are these people walking round with your Dad?" Abdul asked Leo.

"There some rich business people; they want to help with some funding for the school, apparently."

Leo couldn't really care less. It wasn't really going to impact him, so he had no reason to care.

"Leo." He heard a familiar voice say, turning round to see his mum.

"I'll catch you up." He said to Abdul, and went over to his mum.

"Happy Birthday! My baby is all grown up. It's scary." His mum blabbered.

"Thanks." Leo replied, he never really knew how to reply to someone saying Happy Birthday, it was always pretty awkward. Even more so since his mum handed him a card. Opening it, he saw quite a large amount of money in the card.

"Mum, you didn't have to."

"Get yourself something nice. I have no idea what 17 year old boys like. I'd rather you get yourself something you like."

Leo just laughed and gave his mum a hug. "Thanks so much."

"Maybe you and your friends could have a games night or something on Friday night if you talk through it with your Dad."

Leo dedicated his Friday nights for homework. He always used to play video games on a Friday with Marco, and as much as he'd not admit it, it reminded him to much of his former red-headed ex-boyfriend, and he wasn't completely over it.

As much as he knew it was his fault, it was too late now, it had been months. He was too nervous to pick up the phone and call; he didn't know what to say. It was obvious Marco had moved on. Leo would think he had too, until there were things that would remind him of Marco, and he'd realise he still thought about him more than he would admit.

"I think I'll just leave it, I've got a load of homework to do."

* * *

His mum and Dad sat Marco on the couch, like he was about to get in serious trouble.

"What's up?" Marco asked.

"We think it's time you go back to school…"

"…No." Marco interjected. "You saw what happened the last time we had this conversation. I ended up being more messed up than when you sent me."

"The thing is Marco; the University your brother is at and I have made an investment into a school in Greenock." His Dad spoke up.

"Waterloo Road." Marco sneered. "I can't do my photography A-Level there, can I?"

"If full-time is too much, you could go in part time, do a subject there, or two, and you can continue your art and photography at home. They have a graphic design course, and you could continue your English Literature there too."

"Is it really necessary?" Marco slumped in his chair. "It's the last place I'd want to be."

"It'll only be part time." His mum insisted.

"Is there any other option?" He persisted, making his mum sigh.

"Marco, you need to do this, it's a great opportunity to show them how strong you are."

Seeing it as his only option, Marco nodded.

"Yeah, I'll do it."

"Good, you'll be fine in the old house."

"Great." Marco said sarcastically. "I guess I'll need that car then."

He knew his parents were doing this on purpose, they wanted him in Scotland for University options there, Edinburgh was amazing, so was Glasgow, not to mention Aberdeen and Sterling, they had a lot of options, so it made more for him, but Greenock didn't have as much opportunity.

He just hoped that it wasn't going to undo everything he'd done to make himself better.

**AN: Yay! It's finished, I hope everyone enjoyed the first chapter, with the new, blue haired Marco :DDD**

**Hope you all enjoyed, and I'll see you next chapter xxxx**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Waterloo Road or any of the characters in the story**

**Chapter 2**

How strange it felt to be back in Scotland. Marco couldn't believe he got convinced to come back by a car and a new camera, as cool as both of those things were, he was regretting not asking for more.

Another surprising thing was how the hell his car got him there in one piece. Much to his parents' surprise, Marco's choice of car was a battered old Land Rover. The paint was chipped and faded and it wasn't exactly cutting edge of car technology, but Marco insisted it was "super cool" and that was his car.

In contrast, the camera was brand new. It was fun to use, and the pictures were amazing quality.

"There are so many good places for photos here." Marco sighed, looking out the window.

He wasn't ecstatic he only had 2 weeks to get settled back into the Greenock house before he started up classes again. He had to talk with Mr Fitzgerald too. How fun.

"_At least nobody should recognise me." _ He thought, thinking about how drastic he'd changed. He'd lost some weight, he'd gained a tattoo sleeve and numerous piercings, and his once fiery orange hair was now bright blue.

He wasn't going to go unnoticed, but he wasn't going to look like himself, which was ideal. He left last time with everyone assuming he was a psychopath, so he knew things weren't going to be easy.

* * *

"He'd becoming really isolated Vaughn. I'm worried."

"He's just studying, Olga. It's not a problem."

"Vaughn, he said he didn't want to celebrate his birthday with friends because of his schoolwork."

"Olga, Leo is fine." Vaughn insisted. "He didn't have the easiest time last term, he'll come round. At least he's focused on his studies, now."

"What, you're saying he can't have a social life? He barely speaks to anyone."

"No, I'm saying he might just want to keep his head down. Both of them had a difficult time last year, and now it's time for a fresh start."

"Fine, but if anything goes wrong, don't blame any of this on me."

* * *

Marco had only been in Scotland 3 days and he had to go into school for a meeting with the head and his new deputy, which his parents were adamant that he went to.

He rolled up to the familiar building and kind of parked his car in a bay, though he didn't really pay enough attention to see if it was parked straight.

Classes were on, so luckily he had nobody to run into. His fashion sense didn't seem to have changed unlike everything else, wearing a skull t-shirt with a leather, jacket; skinny jeans and biker boots and a beanie.

"Can I help you?" He heard a familiar voice of his English teacher.

"Oh I've got an appointment," He shrugged. "I'm just heading to the office now."

"Marco Fletcher?" She questioned. Christine recognised his voice, but he looked so different. "What are you doing back?"

"My mum and Dad think this place is a business investment, so they're pumping money into the place, so they sent me here. I got a car and a camera for it, so it's bribery really."

"I hardly recognised you. Well, it's nice to have you back."

"Thanks miss."

Marco made his way to the office and it was awfully familiar. Nothing seems to change in Waterloo Road.

"Can I help?" Sonya asked as he walked in.

"Oh, yeah, I'll just sit over here. I have an appointment, Marcus Fletcher."

Sonya just looked at the name, and then at him.

"Right, well sorry he's running a little bit late."

Marco just sat chewing his gum as he scrolled through his phone; he only looked up when he heard the door open.

"Sorry, I have appointments." Vaughn said, as Marco stood up.

"I know. It hasn't been _that_ long sir."

Vaughn's eyes widened as the teenager smirked at him.

"Right, come in Marco."

He entered the office and saw a younger blonde woman sitting there; he assumed she was the new deputy, though she barley looked old enough to have the experience.

"So your parents have made a case for you coming back."

"Mainly a cash one, but yeah."

"We can't ignore what happened last term, but we're willing to give you a last chance, if you're willing to study."

"Only part time though, right." Marco assumed.

"W-well, we would prefer full time, but your parents did make it clear that you might not be ready yet." The blonde spoke up.

"I'm doing some stuff outside of school, so I don't really have time for full time. I've started my A-levels, and I'd rather continue them. I'm fine doing graphics and English Lit here, right? That's what my folks told me."

"The time table doesn't clash." Mr Fitzgerald looked over at his deputy, who seemed a lot more assured about this than he did. "But graphics is GPD instead."

"Which is?"

Lorna sighed, not liking Marco's attitude. "You make it too, not just draw it."

By the look on Marco's face, that was definitely out the picture. "No thanks, is there anything else? I'd do French if it's running, I can catch up."

"I'm sure Mr Windsor would love to have you back." Mr Fitzgerald spoke up. "We'll get a time table for you."

"Cool, I'm still moving, so I'll need another week before I start, but I'll come in for class, that's it. You'll not here a peep out of me."

"You're on your last chance, don't let me down."

Marco nodded, and grabbed a time table and headed back to his car. While he was heading back, the bell rang for break. As he walked to the entrance, he heard people whispering, wondering who he was, and why he was at Waterloo Road.

Luckily, he didn't see Leo. That wasn't something he'd prepared for.

"What are you doing here stranger?" He heard a perky Scottish voice speak up; he spun round and saw a girl who looked vaguely familiar. She had waist length sleek long hair, olive skin and she was wearing a pencil skirt and high heels with her shirt and tie. It took a while to put two and two together, but wow, Lizzie had changed. For one thing, she was wearing a lot less makeup.

"No way, look at you!" Marco replied giving her a hug. "You look like a model."

"Everyone's too busy looking at Bonnie to really notice me but…"

"No Lizzie, you look amazing." Marco insisted. "You've gotten tall, midget."

"5'10"" She said proudly. "My mum and Dad are both really tall so summer was spent buying new clothes, since none of mine really fit anymore."

"Your crazy curls are gone too." Marco huffed.

"Well not really, I've just decided to tame it for now." Lizzie smiled. "In anyway, I barely noticed it was you. I can't even call you ginger anymore."

"Nope, I love the blue hair." Marco laughed. "Going back to Chelsea was probably one the best things I'd done." Then he received a slap on the arm from his friend.

Some things never change.

"You didn't even tell me you were gone. I was so worried!" She scolded. "I was ready to send out a rescue party, until I asked Leo… and he told me."

"Yeah… let's not bring that up." Marco replied, walking out the doors with his old friend.

"Come on, you guys were so cute." Lizzie insisted, receiving a glare from her taller friend.

"So are pugs, it doesn't mean I need one." Marco shrugged, making his way to his car.

"You've got a car?" Lizzie exclaimed. "You're so luck you're loaded, but no offence, but it's…"

"She's awesome." Marco laughed, sitting on his car bonnet. "This thing's older than me. I'm sure my folks only paid like £1500 for it."

"Well at least it won't get nicked." Lizzie joked. "You could've had an amazing car."

"Yeah, and move it to Greenock, I'd rather not." Marco chuckled. "It might not be glamourous, but it's more me than a posh car."

"Really?" Lizzie joked, "You're from Chelsea; everything about you is posh."

Marco continued to laugh along with Lizzie, and he realised how much he'd missed her. As much as her appearance had changed, she hadn't changed much personality wise.

"I didn't even think you'd come back."

"Bribed with a car and a camera." Marco sighed looking up from rolling his cigarette. "Otherwise I'd be at home watching Jezza Kyle and attempting to do some work."

"They were the people here the other week?" Lizzie asked.

"No, they sent people, but my parents pumped a bit of money in here" Marco said, checking the time on his phone.

"So does this mean you're all better now then?" She asked.

Marco froze; he really wanted people to forget it, as difficult as it was. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't." He assured his friend.

Lizzie rolled her eyes as peered into the car and saw the camera on the front seat.

"You're stupid for leaving that in there."

"I was hoping to have a quick meeting and miss break, apparently not."

"Was that so you wouldn't run into Leo?"

"What? No." Marco scoffed. "I just don't really want to be in this place longer than I have to."

"Come on, you can't forget it ever happened."

"I can, he doesn't need to know I'm here."

"What classes are you doing?" Lizzie asked the question confused Marco; it was a bit off topic.

"I'm only doing English Literature and French."

"Well you won't be avoiding him, then..."

"So?" Marco shrugged. "It doesn't mean I have to speak to him."

"You're so stubborn." Lizzie huffed, her attention switching to the bell ringing. "I've got to go, I won't tell him, but you have to."

"Whatever. See you, pizza brain." Marco chuckled, as Lizzie stuck her tongue out at him.

Marco knew fine well Lizzie was right, he could hardly ignore someone who was such a big part in his life, but he didn't really know what to say to him. Leo made it painfully clear he didn't want to speak to him, but once Marco started thinking about it, the more he wanted to strangle Lizzie for bringing it up.

**AN: Thanks to everyone for reviewing ^_^ I'm hoping to possibly update this once a week, though it's probably going to change, I don't stick to a schedule very often, sorry in advance D: xxxxx**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Waterloo Road or any of the characters in the story**

**Chapter 3**

"Leo, you're spending an awful lot of time in your room at the minute." His mum said, sounding concerned.

"I'm just doing work; it's easier to concentrate away from all the noise."

"We're just concerned Leo, you hardly seem interested in anything at the minute."

"I don't know what you mean."

"You've hardly touched your games in a while, either."

"Like I said, work is kind of a priority over games." As much as Leo wanted to pick his games up, they just weren't really interesting anymore. Plus, his mind was set on getting the best grades he could, so he could move as far away from Greenock as possible, as soon as possible.

"Is work a priority over eating?"

"What?" Leo wasn't exactly sure why his mum was bringing it up. He didn't see why he had to eat if he wasn't hungry. Not to mention the amount of hassle he got sitting in the canteen from other students, he thought it was much easier to just avoid it.

"You've not eaten lunch at school for a week now."

"I'm fine." Leo assured his mum. He was pretty annoyed at all these lectures. He was studying, what else did they want? Not to mention this was his break.

"You make sure you are."

Leo nodded made his way to the library for his free, slightly annoyed he'd wasted his break getting a lecture about something that wasn't even a big concern.

Noticing the only spare computer was next to Lizzie; Leo made his way over and sat down. He and Lizzie hadn't spoken much at all since Marco left, and it felt strange seeing how much the girl had changed.

Lizzie immediately had to metaphorically padlock her mouth shut when Leo sat next to her, she said to Marco she wasn't going to tell him, and she wasn't.

As much as she wanted to.

She kept going between writing her English SA to her phone, trying to send snapchats to Marco without Leo knowing who she was talking to.

She giggled at the picture he sent eating a pizza slice with "u jelly? ;D" on it.

"_Damn, he knows me too well."_

She continued to text him, trying not to seem like an idiot, laughing at her phone.

It didn't seem too long before Lisa and Shaznay walked in, making Leo very aware of where they were.

"Who was that boy you were talking to with the blue hair?" Lisa asked.

"Just a friend, he's new."

"I won't mind if he joins up here. Scott and Justin are taken, I'm sure Greenock has no hot people in at all."

Lizzie couldn't help but chuckle. "Dale's not too bad."

"Dale?"

Lizzie replied in a sing-song voice quickly changing the subject. "You should've stayed in touch with Marco, most of his Chelsea friends seem alright." Lizzie got up Marco's old Instagram profile and was looking through photos with his friends.

Leo tried to block out their conversation. Did they really need to bring him up while he was sitting right there?

"No way! I need to move to Chelsea." Shaznay exclaimed. "They make Marco look ugly, he wasn't even that bad, for a psycho."

"They have money too." Lisa commented.

"Well too bad you guys hated Marco so much. I mean he'd introduce me, but I doubt he'd do it with you guys. You were pretty horrible to him."

"Well that doesn't matter now. Nobody knows what happened to him once he left."

"It was weird; it was like he'd just disappeared."

"It was for the best though; he wasn't coping with the whole Brandon thing."

The trio continued talking, about Marco, which was really putting Leo off his SA. He really didn't care what he was doing. All Leo wanted to do was keep his head down, get his grades and think about university.

He didn't want the teenaged drama anymore. He'd live without it.

Finally, Shaznay and Lisa left, Lizzie turned round back to her computer, and noticed Leo was looking a little off.

"I'm sorry; we should've been more sensitive." She said quietly.

"What?"

"It's not been _that_ long since you guys broke up, and you were quite serious. I get it."

"I really couldn't give a damn, honestly. I'm just here to do school stuff. Nothing else."

"Come on Leo." Lizzie sighed "It seems like there's a lot more to you two than what you say."

Leo's eyes just widened as he turned back to his computer. "We didn't _exactly_ finish it, if that's what you're saying."

"Huh?"

"We just stopped talking, he moved that's that."

"So you haven't spoken to him since he moved?"

"I haven't spoken to him since the day he got kicked out again."

Lizzie just shook her head in disapproval at Leo. "You two are both idiots. It's definitely the male species."

Leo just looked at her, confused by her comment.

"Marco's still an annoying posh bastard." Lizzie laughed. "He's pretentious as fuck sometimes, and like every boy ever, he hates admitting he's wrong, but you know deep down you still like him."

Leo tried not to agree. He wanted to be sure he was over it. It was his fault they stopped speaking, he had to move on, which he was trying to do, but everyone else brought him up all the time. Leo wondered how he was meant to forget he was there. Just another thing to add to the list of things Leo really didn't want to deal with right now.

"That seemed rehearsed. Have you said the same thing to him too?"

"Not exactly." Lizzie laughed sheepishly. "He's barely spoken to me either, but you never know, he might move back."

"No way." Leo shook his head. "I'd rather he stayed in Chelsea. It makes things so much easier."

Lizzie had to stop herself face-palming, this wasn't what she wanted Leo to say. She really didn't want to see his reaction when he rocked up to school.

"So you're telling me if he called you up right now and said he was back and wanted to see you, you wouldn't go?"

"No, I wouldn't." Leo wasn't completely lying, he would probably not, but he'd think about it.

"So you've completely moved on from him."

"Yeah, of course I have." Leo replied, whilst typing, obviously getting fed-up with Lizzie being so nosey. "I don't get why nobody else is."

"Maybe everyone wants to see if you're alright? You hardly do anything but study, and that's a bit weird."

"I've never been normal Lizzie; it's a bit late to be worrying about that now."

"It's even weird for you. I'm just trying to be nice. If you push everyone away, you'll not have anyone." Lizzie replied with a hint of sadness in her voice as she got up and left.

Leo tried to shrug it off. Lizzie always pulled the sadness card to get people to feel sorry for her.

He coped fine before, he'd cope fine now.

However, there was nagging thought in the back of his wind, wondering what would have happened if he had picked up the phone, all those months ago. Marco was such a huge part of his life, it seemed as if he filled it with more and more studying, but he couldn't deny that things had been pretty rubbish since he'd left. The constant hassle from people at school, the amount of school work, the fact he felt like he couldn't speak to his parents about anything, especially since he always felt as if Justin seemed to always be put first.

A part of him wanted to call him, but a larger part was telling him that Marco would have moved on, and he should just do the same.

No matter how hard it was.

**AN: Thanks for the reviews guys ^_^ I really appreciate it :)**

**Updates might slow down slightly, as I'm finishing up a few assignments, before I leave college for the summer, but that shouldn't be too bad, I hope :D**

**xxxx**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Waterloo Road or any of the characters in the story**

**Chapter 4**

"_I won't tell him, but you have to."_

"Damn it Lizzie." Marco sighed. He knew she was right. He probably should tell him.

Though, Marco felt as if it was probably a bad idea.

It had played on his mind since she'd first said it, and she'd always ask whether he'd said something, but he didn't know what to say. He said goodbye when he left. It was done as far as he was concerned.

Having only the weekend left before he had to go back to Waterloo Road, Marco decided to take advantage of having some light and went to take some landscape shots with his new camera.

He jumped in his car and decided to he'd head out near the industrial area, and try and take a few edgy cityscape shots. He loved trying out his new camera, and actually, got a few decent shots, considering it was cloudy, and the light wasn't on his side, with it being winter.

"Jeez it's fucking freezing." He grumbled packing his camera into its case with his numb fingers. "I better get a decent grade for this."

Driving back to his house, he contemplated a few things. One, how much easier life was now he could drive; Two, he had to face school tomorrow, and as much as he'd put it off, he was not prepared at all and Three, he knew not to expect anything, Waterloo Road never failed to surprise.

"_I still can't believe I'm in on a Monday morning, that's just mean."_

Though, Marco had an easier time table than most, he only had to sit in the English Literature classes and French. That was only a few lessons a week.

Thank goodness.

* * *

Marco wasn't a morning person. He also hated Mondays. The combination of both couldn't be fixed with a cup of coffee.

He hated the uniform so much.

Not only did the tie look awful with his blue hair, you could see his tattoos slightly through his shirt.

"Fuck it, it's only school." He sighed, shoving a beanie on his head, and jumping in his car, more out of laziness than the fact school was far away.

Although, reaching school, he was regretting his decision. People were everywhere.

"Do people not think? Oh my god!" Marco sighed while he managed to finally get his large car parked.

He jumped out his car with his camera round his neck, and just sat on the bonnet of his car for a while, trying to calm his nerves.

He didn't have a locker, and assumed just keeping everything in his bag would suffice, he was only in half a day.

He had registration first, with a Miss Hutchinson in Mrs Lowsley's old lab, and by the looks of things, there was no sign of either of them, nor was Mr Reid there either.

"_What did I miss?"_

He noticed his registration class was different from last year, assuming as many had left for college instead of sixth form, but he knew nobody in there, and people had already formed friendship groups.

He was an outsider, again.

However, everyone kept turning to glance at him, before turning away just as quickly.

"That was the boy Lizzie Marino was talking to."

"She's always talking to someone, slag."

"Hey, I can hear you." Marco piped up. "Don't talk about my friends like that."

"S-sorry." One of the girls stuttered, embarrassed that someone had heard them.

Marco just smirked, as Miss Hutchinson glared at him.

He was allowed to stick up for his friends, after all.

* * *

When the bell finally went for first lesson, Marco made his way to the familiar English classroom. In a way, he was happy he had Miss Mulgrew again for his A-Level, she was a pretty good teacher, and she made things slightly more interesting, plus, she was one of the few teachers at Waterloo Road left who Marco remembered.

He hadn't been really nervous about coming back until he got to the door, and it immediately hit him. This was real.

Marco took a seat at the back of the class, and as more students began to come in, he saw a familiar face.

"_Why the hell is he here?"_

Marco slapped himself internally for that question. Leo had been there a lot longer than he had. He wasn't surprised to see Lizzie walk in and sit next to someone he didn't really recognise, Lizzie wasn't exactly difficult to be friends with.

When Leo walked in the door, he noticed the boy in the back of the classroom. Everyone was talking about him, rocking up in an old Land Rover, thinking he was some kind of rock star.

He didn't want to be part of the hype, but he had to admit, whoever he was, he wasn't bad looking in the slightest.

As the last few stragglers joined the class, Miss Mulgrew decided to start.

"Right everyone; we're starting chapter 3 today." Christine paused, remembering Marco probably hadn't started. "Marco, what book have you been studying?"

'_Marco_' Leo assured himself it was a coincidence. It wasn't as if he was the only person in the world going by that name. He stared at his book, not wanting to turn around, like the rest of the class did. It was completely coincidence that he was called Marco, and he was nearly always spotted with Lizzie.

'_Okay, that really is farfetched.'_

"The Great Gatsby, miss. I've finished it though, but I'll re-read if you need me to."

Leo instantly froze, hearing his voice. It was pretty easy distinguishable.

'_Of course.'_ Leo sighed. He had no idea he'd be back, and look so different, and he didn't want to admit it, but, Leo liked the new look, a lot.

"Well you should have no problems with the questions then."

Leo immediately just stared at his book and read through chapter 3 again of the book, not that he could concentrate.

Why didn't Marco tell him he was coming back?

How the hell was he going to speak to him at all?

He quietly got through his work and hoped he could get through the double without the ground swallowing him whole.

As much as the Great Gatsby wasn't grabbing his attention, Leo somehow managed to get through a double of English, and couldn't have been happier when the bell went.

"Are you alright, mate?" Abdul asked. "You've gone pale."

"Yeah, I'm just tired." Leo lied, avoiding eye contact when Marco walked past him with Lizzie.

'_Why do you not just speak to him?'_

"Alright, Leo?" Shaznay asked sarcastically, her counterpart following suit.

"Marco's looking pretty fit, isn't he?" Lisa commented.

"I've not really noticed." Leo shrugged, trying not to notice the questioning look he  
got from Abdul.

"Oh come on, _everyone_ has noticed." Shaznay sighed. "You've had your chance though. I just hope he's bisexual."

"He's probably still a bit psycho though."

"Probably because of _him_." Lisa responded, glancing at Leo.

The two girls laughed as they walked away.

"What the hell where they on about?" Abdul asked.

"I have no idea." Leo lied. Thoughts ran through his head, were they right? Was it his fault Marco left? It seemed a lot of things were Leo's fault nowadays.

* * *

Marco made his way to his car to spend his break, clutching his camera cautiously as he made his way over to the battered vehicle, but as he approached, he noticed a small robin perched on the bonnet of his car.

'_I can't miss this, what a photo op!"_

His gait changed, as he crept to his car, lifting his camera, and just as he was took the photo, he felt a presence next to him.

"What are you doing?" Lizzy asked.

"What does it look like?" Marco rolled his eyes, hoping she hadn't ruined his shot. He sat himself on the bonnet of his car.

"How was your first day back then?"

"Not too bad." Marco sad, sounding surprised.

"You know everyone knows you're here now, so except a thousand people coming over."

Just as she said that, Lisa, Shaznay, and the girl Lizzie was sitting next to in class, walked over, along with Lenny.

"Lisa, why did you drag us all the way over here?" Lenny asked.

"You didn't believe me. _That's_ Marco Fletcher."

Marco's eyes narrowed at Lisa's tone.

"No way." Lenny rolled his eyes. "Sorry mate."

"I am. I have the scar to prove it too." Marco grinned. "It seems this place is stuck in time, I've been gone a good few months, and the only thing that's changed is Lizzie."

Lizzie dug him with her elbow, making him laugh.

"I didn't recognised you." Lenny admitted. "Oh, and, this is Carrie."

"Nobody did, really." Marco shrugged, smiling at Carrie. "It's what summer does to people. I get blue hair and tattoos; Lizzie gets tall and more Italian."

"I spent the summer in Italy, what do you expect?" She exclaimed, and then cursed under her breath in Italian.

"Are you two married or something?" Lenny asked making the group laugh.

"No!" They both said in unison, then glaring at each other.

"I couldn't. She's like my sister, that's gross." Marco laughed.

"I thought you didn't go out with girls?" Shaznay questioned.

"I do." Marco answered, not really wanting to have the conversation. "I'm happy with both."

"You're _such_ a twat sometimes." Lizzie sighed.

"Well you know, he wasn't all there in the head last term, were you, Marco?" Lisa taunted.

.Marco tensed up; of course they'd turn the tables quickly. "It's a little more complicated than that."

"Whatever, everyone remembers you having a proper go at Justin the last time anyone saw you." Shaznay spoke up.

Marco knew the way he was feeling, he'd felt it so many times, he remembered his therapist's words about breathing exercises, and removing yourself from the situation. He knew what all this was coming to, and he was trying to avoid it, if possible.

"I...I… I need to go, sorry." He said, hurrying into his car before starting the engine and driving back home. He was okay with the fact he wasn't skipping out on any lessons, since he'd stayed in English, and he could work at home.

Though, he felt a bit bad for not talking to Leo about him coming back. As much as he wanted to let it go, and move on, Leo obviously had, he did want to speak to him. Especially since he just showed up out of the blue, he knew Leo probably wanted him as far away as possible.

'_How the fuck am I going to speak to him?' _

**AN: The weekly schedule is still going strong ^-^ **

**And to the Anon, SA's are just essays, I've just always wrote it like that since school :)**

**Thanks for all the reviews favourites and follows, and I will see you all next chapter xxxx**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Waterloo Road or any of the characters in the story**

**Chapter 5**

Leo wandered home after staying back, again. He was sure no matter how long he spent on his work, it was never done. It didn't help that he spent his last few lessons with people picking out his faults, one way or another.

He entered the house and headed straight upstairs to his room, he was used to just being ignored, especially since Marco had left.

"_Stop thinking about him. He's over it, and so are you."_ He reminded himself as he sat on his bed and grabbed his laptop, plugging his headphones in so he could just forget everything, and ignore the world.

Only, it was never that simple.

A loud knock on the door made Leo yank his headphones out with annoyance.

"Earth to Leo."

"What?" Leo snapped at his brother.

"I'm just seeing how you are. You looked a bit out of it today."

"I'm fine, I'm just tired." Leo lied. He had no idea how he felt right now.

"Good, did you hear about Marco?"

"Yeah, he's in my English class." Leo sighed, wishing everyone would drop the subject.

"I didn't see him around."

"He doesn't exactly look like him, but he's the blue haired person everyone's obsessed with."

"Really?" Justin questioned. "Wow, and I thought Bonnie had changed, everyone's talking about him. Gabriella wasn't half as loaded as him; you should've kept in touch with him bro, y'know, if he wasn't a complete psycho."

"Funny." Leo responded sarcastically. "Mental illness doesn't equal a psychopath, you know."

All Leo could remember was him telling Marco the last time they talked he was a waste of time. He was regretting being so cold. Leo wished he had have just picked up the phone.

Why the hell did he not pick up the phone?

"Did you seriously not know?" Justin asked, changing the subject.

"Why would I? We've not spoken in months."

"I just thought, with you two…"

"…People break up Justin. You of all people should know that."

Justin sighed, Leo had been so involved in his work since school started, nobody ever seen him longer than an hour. He knew people would still make comments, but he assumed he was used to it by now, but he understood Marco coming back was the last thing his brother needed, thinking how things would be if Tiffany showed up out of the blue tomorrow.

"Look, I have work I have to do." Leo sighed, snapping Justin out of his thoughts.

"Okay, just remember to take a break." Justin replied, knowing fine well Leo wouldn't listen.

* * *

The next day came around too quickly, and Marco wasn't in until after lunch, so he had time to lie about and procrastinate doing anything that involved leaving the warmth of his bed.

"I'm sure it gets colder every day." He grumbled, trying to grasp any remaining strands of motivation to get up and get coffee.

Although it was November, Marco was already starting to think about Christmas, being super excited to go home, spend time with the family, and his friends.

But he had no shopping done, at all.

He knew that was the only good thing about the winter, everything else was awful, so he tended to get into the Christmas spirit earlier than most.

However, today, he was on similar levels to Scrooge, he really didn't care, especially since it was so cold.

"I should really think about moving to Australia." He grumbled to himself whilst drinking his coffee, the deliberated on it briefly, and decided the spiders were WAY too big for him to live there.

He trudged into school with his thick coat on grumbling into a hot cup of coffee. He regretted not buying a car with a decent heating system. He noticed people staring, still making comments. It was starting to really piss him off.

"It's not _that_ cold yet." Lizzie laughed. "God knows what you'll be like nearer Christmas."

"I'll be an ice cube." Marco complained.

"It'll match your hair then." Lizzie commented. "Listen, I'm having a Christmas party on the last day of term and you _have to _go along. I'm organising early, so it can be the best party, ever."

"I thought you were in Italy over the Christmas."

"I am but we don't fly over until the 23rd of December, so we have some time for one, my folks gave me the green light for one."

"I'll be there." Marco assured, and then sighed. "I wish I could spend Christmas somewhere exciting. Home is great and stuff, but imagine: spending Christmas in the Alps, or in Iceland watching the Northern Lights or something."

"That's great, if you can afford it." Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Not all of us can jet off without saving up beforehand."

"_I know._" He reiterated.

"It would be quite romantic." Lizzie agreed. "I need to marry a rich man."

"So does everyone apparently." Marco joked. "I could set you up, unless you still have your eye on Dale."

"What!" She exclaimed. "Who told you?"

"It's a bit obvious."

"It is? I don't look desperate do I? Oh god, I bet he thinks I'm a right slag…"

"…Lizzie, chill, you're fine, if he doesn't like you, it's his loss, not yours." Marco replied, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I suppose." She sighed. "It seems as if I think I looked better than ever this year, but nobody else thinks so. I'm too tall, too tanned, not enough make-up…."

"…Lizzie, I swear to god, I'll slap you. Boys are arseholes, you don't need our validation, trust me."

"Yeah, but everyone…"

"No." Marco stopped her. "Honestly, don't rush it. You'll find someone eventually."

"Wow, when did you get all mature?"

"Hey, I can be mature, I live alone, and I can deal." Marco joked, shrugging it off, paying more and more attention to the comments around him, more than his conversation at hand.

Lizzie noticed the slight change in Marco; he seemed very tense, he seemed to be looking angrier than usual too.

"Are you okay, Marco? You look a little stressed."

Marco sighed; he thought he was hiding it well. "I'm fine; I'm good." He assured.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm fine, stop worrying." Marco felt a tinge of regret for lying to Lizzie, there were times it would still be bad, but he didn't need to worry anyone, he was meant to be better.

"Well look after yourself, I don't need you leaving me again." Lizzie said lightening the mood. "You're my BFF." She said in a cheesy, stereotypical American accent.

"Never do that again." Marco responded bluntly, happy Lizzie was born Scottish, not American.

"Well, I should start making my way to PE, I'll see you later."

Marco said his goodbyes to Lizzie and decided he should probably do the same with French, however, he felt like everyone was staring at him, he could hear people talking about him.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." He grumbled as he walked out the way of the people.

He made his way to his car and sat for a bit, taking deep breaths, and tried to calm himself down with a playlist on his phone with calming music and he blocked it out, and he gradually began to calm down.

"_You can do this Marco,"_ he repeated over and over in his thoughts, as he returned to the school building, and gradually made his way to the classroom.

* * *

Leo felt as if he couldn't get away from Marco if he tried. It was as if this was the world making his life even more annoying than it already was.

It didn't help things at all. He was determined to say he was over him, and he said it to everyone else, but he knew he was lying, there was a small piece of him thinking "what if?" and he wished it would just go away, since it seemed to be worse the longer he was around Marco.

He knew they needed to speak eventually, but he really didn't want to right now, he needed a lot more time.

It seemed as if Marco had changed, and Leo knew he had to just get over it and move on. The only person he'd seen with the blue haired boy was Lizzie, everyone else seemed to be avoiding him like the plague, which only made him wonder what the hell he'd done.

When the bell rang, all Leo could think about was going home, there was no way he would be staying back, he couldn't really concentrate enough.

"Leo!" He heard a voice, he turned round to see Lizzie pottering over to him. He wondered why she wore such high heels; she was tall enough without them. "I'm having a huge party on the last day before the Christmas Holidays, you've got to come along, everyone is…"

"…No thanks, I'm not really a party person."

"Come on, you don't even have to speak to Marco."

"That's not why I don't want to go." Leo insisted. "I don't like parties."

"_Come on_." Lizzie sighed. "You can let yourself have some fun for one night, at least."

"I'm not interested."

The two continued making valid reasons for going, or not going to the party, with Leo becoming rather tired of Lizzie's persistence. Lizzie was kind of relieved Marco didn't' take this much persuasion.

"I can argue all day, you're going to the damn party, have a little Christmas spirit." Lizzie argued.

"Fine." Leo sighed in defeat; he really just wanted Lizzie to shut up. "I'll go."

"Yay!" Lizzie exclaimed. "I'll give you more info as I get it. See you later!"

Leo just rolled his eyes as she turned to leave. He knew it probably wasn't a good thing to isolate himself so much from everyone, but he couldn't help it, they always just brought up Marco whenever he was in the conversation, as if he was the only good thing to happen to Leo, as if he wasn't a person if Marco wasn't there, and that wasn't the case.

Leo didn't exactly want to go to the party, but he assumed Lizzie would hunt him down if he didn't go, and that he wasn't exactly the most social, he decided maybe moving out of his comfort zone and it had been too long since he'd been out, anywhere, so he assumed there was no harm in showing his face.

As Lizzie walked away, her grin could almost mimic the Cheshire cat's.

"_The plan has worked."_

**AN: Thank you for reviewing ^_^ I'm a few chapters ahead right now, but I would love to hear all your thoughts on the story. I love every one of you who reads this, and I hope you're enjoying this!**

**See you next chapter xxxx**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Waterloo Road or any of the characters in the story**

**Chapter 6**

It had been about 2 weeks since Marco had re-joined Waterloo Road, and he still hadn't spoken a word to Leo, as much as he thought he should, he was convinced Leo wouldn't want to know.

However, Leo was thinking the exact same thing. It wouldn't bother him so much if Marco wasn't doing the same classes as him; it just made everything so much more difficult.

"Are you going to Lizzie's end of term party?" Abdul asked, snapping him from his thoughts.

"If I don't, Lizzie's probably going to brutally murder me, so I kind of have to."

"Yeah, she's a lot nicer to look at." Abdul responded, offending Leo slightly, Lizzie was a pain sometimes, but she was a good person, and he knew Marco couldn't have a better friend. "From what I've heard though, her parties are mental."

"She's alright; she's good at making people smile." Leo defended, making Abdul smile at him. "What?"

"If you fancy her, just say it."

"Lizzie?" Leo questioned. "No way. Never."

"If you say so." Abdul replied, not believing Leo in the slightest. "You might have a bit of competition though. You've seen her hanging round the new guy; everyone says he's a psycho…"

"…I don't like Lizzie, I…" Leo stopped himself from saying what he was going to. He and Abdul weren't good enough friends for him to be telling him personal stuff like that. "…never mind, just drop it."

"Fine, but the longer you leave it, the more you're letting her get away."

Leo just rolled his eyes, and continued to class, knowing Abdul probably wasn't going to drop it.

* * *

"So you're definitely going?" Lizzie asked.

"For the millionth time Lizzie, yeah, I'm going." Marco sighed. "And before you ask, yes I'll bring the stuff for Jaeger bombs, and no, I won't bring anything illegal, unless you want me to."

Lizzie glared at Marco, who grinned impishly at her. "I said no weed."

"Come on Lizzie. You said I have a stick up my backside."

"Yeah, but you're not a stoner."

"I know but it's been ages since I've got stoned. It's an amazing feeling if you only do it every once in a while."

"No, Marco my Dad would have me hung, drawn and quartered if he thought there was weed in the house."

"Fine." Marco rolled his eyes.

"Good, no friend of mine is going to be a druggie. Besides, I thought that stuff can make you paranoid, would you want to risk it when you've…"Lizzie stopped at her friend shot her an angry stare, an she immediately dropped it.

"I've got work to do." Marco replied coldly, standing up.

"Marco…" Lizzie spoke up getting up to follow him. "Look I'm sorry, I didn't realise it was a sensitive issue."

"No shit?" Marco replied. "Look, ever since I came back to this shithole, everyone assumes I'm a psychopath. I try my fucking best and it just gets thrown in my face."

"Well you could just explain…"

"…I don't have to explain myself to anyone." Marco scoffed.

"It would make things easier; nobody gets what's going on because you won't tell anyone. Hell, Leo's the only person who even knows why you left."

"So fuck?" Marco shrugged passively. "If you're that bothered, ask him."

"Like he'd tell me. I'd rather hear it from you."

"Well that's too bad."

"Why are you so stubborn? I'm only trying to help." Lizzie complained, "It's like you want people to think you're off the map." Lizzie immediately regretted what she said when she saw the look of genuine hurt in Marco's eyes, though his face remained completely emotionless. "Marco… I…"

"…Go."

"W-what? Marco, I wasn't thinking I just…"

"I don't care." Marco shook his head turning away and taking a deep breath. It seemed as if all his memories of his first few weeks home hit him all at once. He could barely bring himself to say anything, and he felt his hands shaking. "Leave."

Pulling his keys out his pocket, Marco made his way to his car, so at least he could sort his head out. He heard a few whispers as he passed, calling him names, and whispering, but something had changed, and these rumours were no longer getting to him. They were no longer making him think about Brandon, or Justin or Leo. In fact, these accusations made him chuckle a little.

'_Psycho, eh? Well if they insist.'_

* * *

"Leo, can I speak to you for a minute, in private."

Leo's attention was switched to Lizzie, who he had seen more of since he'd agreed to go to this party than he had in months. He just nodded in response.

As he walked away, Abdul gave him a "thumbs up", and Leo just glared at him, whilst wondering what Lizzie even had to say to him.

"If this is about the party, for like the tenth time this week, I'm not backing out, I'll go."

"No, it's not that."

Leo instantly worried seeing Lizzie's serious tone. Lizzie was rarely genuinely serious, sad looking as she was. The first thing that came to mind was wondering if anything had happened with Marco, but he then assumed it wasn't, why would it be?

"I know you two don't speak, but I need to ask you something about Marco."

Leo was taken back by the statement, his assumption was wrong. He felt himself instantly get nervous. Again, he just nodded in response.

"I need to know exactly why Marco left, you're the only person that knows, and I said a few things that I shouldn't but I need him to be more honest with me."

Leo seemed like he'd been hit across the face with morality. This wasn't his secret to tell, and Lizzie wasn't the quietest of people, nor did he fully trust her. However, Marco hadn't told his best friend why he'd left, and she was trying to help.

Leo sighed heavily. "You have to promise not to tell anyone else. This really isn't my secret to tell."

Lizzie nodded intently.

"After everything with Brandon last year, Marco went a bit… he was a bit off. He…" Leo paused, wondering whether he was doing the right thing. "…he was diagnosed with PTSD, he didn't really take it that well, as you'd imagine. He assured everyone he was fine, but he really wasn't well and I guess that fight he had with Justin just pushed him too far."

He felt bad for not mentioning anything about the fact they argues about it, but he assumed it wouldn't matter in anyway.

Lizzie's eyes were wide, guilt written all over her face. "Oh god. I feel like shit."

"You didn't know; you can't blame yourself." Leo assured her.

"Thanks Leo, I know you just want to get on with things, so sorry for bringing it up."

"It's no issue, honestly." Leo shrugged, but he knew deep down it bothered him a little. Though he felt slightly guilty for telling Lizzie, and he hoped it wasn't the wrong decision.

* * *

Marco was relaxing in his car when he was disrupted by someone tapping oh his window. He rolled down the window to an apologetic looking Lizzie.

"Can we talk?"

"I don't know. Are you still being a bitch?"

"Look I'm sorry okay, I was angry. I didn't know you were _that_ unwell last summer."

By look Marco shot her, Lizzie immediately knew she'd said far too much.

"Lizzie, what do you know?" Marco asked, a lot calmer than Lizzie had imagined.

"I know that you were diagnosed with PTSD last term." Lizzie said quietly, knowing he wouldn't want people overhearing their conversation.

Marco immediately tensed up; he knew exactly who had told her, but why? It had nothing to do with him anymore. If he had told Lizzie, how many other people could he tell?

"Marco, say something. Look, I wasn't going to ask, but you seemed so upset, I'd rather know, so I can try and not bring up triggers and stuff."

Marco took all his might to suppress his rage. He was surprised steam wasn't coming out of his ears. He couldn't blame Lizzie though; he knew she was only trying to help.

"Thanks Lizzie." He replied calmly, a fake half-smile on his face. "Please don't tell anyone, this isn't something the whole school needs to know, I'd prefer to tell people when I'm ready."

Lizzie was shocked at how calm Marco was being.

"You haven't smoked anything? You're a lot calmer than I thought you'd be about this."

Marco just chuckled and shook his head. "I wish. Don't worry about me Lizzie. I'm absolutely fine."

Lizzie's smile convinced Marco that she believed him. He wondered why he was bold face lying to his best friend, though he assured himself, he'd lied to a lot of people, it was too late to be feeling bad about it now.

Marco was surprised Lizzie was so easily convinced, but keeping his cool later on would be a different story.

**AN: A day late isn't too bad, right? Hope you enjoy :D**

**See you next chapter! :D xxx**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Waterloo Road or any of the characters in the story**

**Chapter 7**

Marco hadn't shown up for the afternoon lesson of French, and Leo was worried whether Lizzie had brought up what he'd told her, and Marco took it badly.

Marco was a loose cannon when he was angry, so he hoped that if he was right, the blue haired boy wasn't doing anything stupid, especially since he'd returned, he'd seemed a lot more serious, as if the fun side of him had completely disappeared.

It wasn't helping that Abdul was constantly disbelieving Leo when he denied anything romantic going on between him and Lizzie. At first it was kind of funny, but it was starting to get on his nerves that he didn't get that he wasn't interested.

* * *

Marco was in the library, drumming his fingers on the desk as he tried to concentrate on his French textbook. He assumed doing the reading here would help him calm down but it wasn't working, he was still wound up, and he just needed to vent his anger somehow.

He knew driving when feeling like this was a terrible idea, so he wasn't going to take the car home, and he knew how much trouble he'd be in for skipping class. He was still shaking with anger, and he knew he wouldn't be able to concentrate in class.

He knew exactly why he was angry, but he was unsure whether he felt angry, or betrayed. He assumed that Leo would've kept those things secret, considering the fact that if he had wanted Lizzie to know about his disorder, he would have told her.

His notes became more and more messy as his scratched his pen into the paper, scrawling the notes down in an almost unreadable font.

"_Get it together Marco, Jesus Christ."_

But his internal pep-talks didn't quite seem to be doing the trick, so he decided he'd just wait in his car until he convinced himself this was a bad idea.

* * *

For the first time in weeks, Leo was going home on the bell, rather than staying behind, convinced by Abdul that he needed a break, and he assured himself he'd be fine not staying back, since the teachers were giving slightly less homework than normal.

As he walked to the school entrance, he noticed a rust old Land Rover still parked rather badly in one of the spots, which meant Marco was still at school, or the car had died, which wouldn't have surprised him with the obvious age on the machine.

"What's up?" Abdul asked.

"Oh, nothing, I thought I saw something." Leo lied as he continued walking.

"Oi, Leo." He heard a familiar voice speak up, and he was met with the more unfamiliar appearance of Marco. Both Leo and Abdul stopped in their tracks, Abdul looked slightly scared of the taller boy, and Leo noticed a look in his eye that he'd rarely seen, and it scared him slightly too.  
"I need to talk with you."

"Oh, okay." Leo responded, Marco rolling his eyes at the boy's quiet demeanour.

"I'll meet you at the gate." Abdul replied, leaving Leo with the blue haired monster. It wasn't often at all Marco ever truly scared him, but the new look made him a lot more intimidating.

Marco immediately began walking to somewhere nobody would see them, Leo just followed, thankful nobody had noticed them, or said anything. When they got somewhere, Marco just stopped, and looked down at Leo.

"I think you know why I want to speak to you." Marco said as calmly as he could.

"I'm not sure."

"Don't play dumb with me." Marco growled. "You're not stupid Leo, I'm not either. Don't insult me."

Leo was surprised by Marco's blunt tone. He'd never seen him like this before, even when he used to argue with Mrs Lowesly.

"Is this about Lizzie?"

"Of course it is."

"She only wanted to help."

"I couldn't care less."

Leo didn't know what to say, it was as if the cheeky, cheerful Marco he first met was replaced by the sharp tongued, angry person standing in front of him.

He was barely the same person.

"You don't even have the decency to apologise." He spat.

"Give me a chance to get my head around this, because you've not spoke a word to me for months, and when you do, you're ready to kill me."

"Well if you didn't go around telling people secrets that aren't yours to tell then I wouldn't have had a problem, I would have just not spoken to you."

Leo debated with himself if that was what he'd wanted. Especially now he was acting like this. He felt something pushing him to argue back, and not let him be intimidated.  
"You do realise I could have told other people, and I didn't."

"Oh could you now?" Marco taunted. "Then why didn't you?"

"Because I'm a decent human being."

"That's debatable." Marco scoffed.

"Like you can talk. You've hardly helped yourself."

"So this is my fault?" Marco chuckled menacingly. "You know that's wrong."

"Is it? Because the whole reason this started was because you were stupid enough to go and meet Brandon, and now you're back, you're acting just as bad as he did." Leo immediately realised he'd went too far when he saw the look in Marco's eyes.

Marco grabbed Leo's shirt collar and clenched his fist. "Don't you dare say anything that dickhead did was my fault!" He snapped. "I'm nothing like him, understand that."

"What are you going to hit me now?" Leo taunted. "It won't stop me telling everyone Marco Fletcher thinks he's a rock star, when actually he talks to himself, has nightmares and ran away because he couldn't deal with therapy." He thought he'd went too far before, Leo knew this was definitely the wrong thing to not get beat up, and prevent Marco from having another breakdown.

Letting go, Marco just glared at him. "You know jack shit." He growled, "Do me a favour and stay the fuck away from me and my friends."

"Friend." Leo corrected, not knowing why he was doing this, he'd hurt him enough.

"You what?"

"Lizzie seems to be the only person who wants to speak to you."

Marco tensed up, he had no idea why Leo was having such a go at him, as far as he knew; he'd done nothing wrong. "I'm not going to dignify that with a response." Marco tutted, walking away, whilst leaving Leo slightly confused of what had just happened.

"_I am such an idiot."_

Making his way to the school gate, Leo noticed Abdul had already left.

'_So much for waiting.'_

Sighing, Leo couldn't help but think he'd over stepped the mark. Bringing up Brandon was one thing, but bringing up his illness was a whole other situation. He knew he just wanted to bring him down a few notches, and stop him being such an ass, but he knew he'd really upset him.

And he hated himself for it.

He knew it was all said and done, and Marco would leave him alone now, and the way he spoke to him, he had every right to tell everyone, but his conscience was holding him back. He knew how much grief people would give him, and he was getting enough.

* * *

Marco tried to calm down, but no matter what he did, it wasn't working. Paint was everywhere, his camera was lying on the sofa carelessly and pieces of paper were flung all over the floor.

He sighed, noticing the mess of the house. It seemed as if the place had descended into chaos as soon as he'd entered the house. Something about being in Greenock this time was different. He wasn't trying to impress anyone, but people already had their views.

Views which were wrong.

He wondered if Leo wanted to tell people why he'd left, why he'd not done it sooner. Many thoughts ran across Marco's mind, but one stuck in his head. It was because nobody asked. Nobody cared. They were happy to see him gone, and so they didn't care that he'd left, and the same opinion was there when he returned.

"Bastards." He grumbled, crumpling another piece of paper into a ball and throwing it in the general direction of the bin. Wiping his yes, he grabbed another pencil and tried to fathom something onto the page, but, to no avail.

He knew there was only really one way to calm down, and although his hands were covered in paint, he still picked up the phone and pressed dial on a number he'd wanted to call since the day he started at school.

"Hello, mum?" He said shakily.

"Marco? Nice of you to call, how are things going?"

Marco could answer. He hated it, he felt so alone.

"Marco, what's wrong?"

Marco was amazed his mother could tell something was up from just his tone of voice; he usually tried so hard to stay positive around his family, to say he was getting better.

"Everyone hates me." He replied, swallowing the lump forming in his throat. "I wouldn't care, but they just bring up last year all the time. I… I don't even know why I'm still here."

"You still have your friends though, that girl you talked about, and Leo."

Marco felt a pain in his chest. "Not really. I've spent more time talking to Sam and Charlie on Skype than with anyone up here."

"You've got to try Marco."

"You think I want to be seen as the school psychopath?" Marco retorted; wincing at his tone, knowing it wouldn't have gone down well with his mother. "Sorry, it's just setting me on edge."

Hearing a sigh from the other side of the phone, he knew his mum wasn't happy with him. "You've just moved coming back would be…"

"…giving up, I know." Marco replied sounding defeated. "I just needed to hear a familiar voice. Things are really tough at the minute."

"It's not too long until you're back home for Christmas, you'll do it."

"Yeah, it's the only thing keeping me going at the minute."

"Well I've got to go, but remember to call us if you need anything."

After saying his goodbyes, Marco felt no better than he did when he picked up the phone.

He was meant to move here and finish school. He was meant to just get the grades he needed. He just needed people out of his way. The quicker he made the days pass by, the quicker he could go home.

**AN: Weekly update on schedule :D Hope you guys are enjoying this so far, and I'll see you all next chapter ^_^ xxx**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Waterloo Road or any of the characters in the story**

**Chapter 8**

The next day, Leo walked into school and there was a noticeable absence of a battered old four by four. A wave of guilt hit him as he realised it was probably his fault. He knew Lizzie had spoken to him after they had talked otherwise he wouldn't have acted the way he did.

"You still do that." Justin remarked.

"What?"

"Look out for his car. You've done since you've known he's here."

Leo just shook his head. "I'm not looking for him."

"Just his car, right?" Justin teased.

"No." Leo replied bluntly. "Why would I? You've heard what everyone's been saying."

"Yeah, kind of embarrassing when it was me he tried to kill." Justin joked. "Seriously, I hear weirder and weirder things about him every day. Yet you're the only one who knows why he left."

Leo just glared at his brother. "No way, Justin I can't tell you."

"Why not? The guy's an arsehole and everyone wants to know."

"Then why hasn't anyone asked." Leo responded. "Besides, it's not my secret to tell. He might be a pain, but I'm not telling."

"Leo, if you're even thinking about it, it's a bad idea." Justin convinced as best he could, no way was he going through the same thing he did last year.

"No! I'm not." Leo assured. "It's just not something that should be going round the school, it's pretty personal, and unlike you, he doesn't like talking about it."

Justin nodded, knowing how much anger management had helped him, and he had no shame about it, he'd happily talk about it with someone, believing it could help others who avoided getting therapy because of its stigma.

He knew a lot of people didn't share his view

"Bonnie's waiting for me, I've got to go."

Leo made his way to the library like usual and just waited for his friends to show up. He wondered about what Justin had said. Leo knew Justin didn't like Marco, in fact, he probably hated the guy after everything, but Leo had to remember it was his choice to not call him back, it was his choice to ignore him and he believed ultimately his choice led for Marco to move back to Chelsea.

As he heard a familiar voice enter the library, he knew he had to talk to her.

"Lizzie, can we talk for a minute."

"Sure." Lizzie said unsurely, her friends giving her questioning looks as she walked out of the library. "What is it?"

"Did you speak to Marco yesterday, about… you know what?"

"Um… yeah, I did." Lizzie replied nervously. "He said he was fine about it, he wasn't bothered that I knew."

"Did he now?" Leo replied, annoyed at how he was the only one Marco got angry with; Lizzie was the one who asked. "That's not what it seemed like when he spoke to me."

"Why? What did he do?" Lizzie sighed, knowing he'd done something stupid.

"I'm surprised he didn't kill me. I haven't seen him in school, and he's usually in by now. I just hope I haven't done anything to trigger it."

"Why would you trigger it?"

"I may have said a few things, about Brandon, and his PTSD." Leo spoke sheepishly, knowing Lizzie would be out for his blood as well.

"Jeez Leo, it's a sensitive subject."

"Yeah, well I didn't fancy getting beat up. All because I told you, thank god it's only you I told."

"Really? He's not doing himself any damn favours." Lizzie grumbled. "You'll probably see him before me, but if I were you, I'd stay out his way for a bit, he's changed since coming back, and I'm not quite sure how or why."

"Well, that's not my problem. He needs to get himself together." Leo shrugged. "I just thought I'd warn you because you're the only person who even bothers anymore."

A wave of sadness hit Lizzie as she heard this, were people really that bothered by him? By the looks of things, her plan had failed before it had even fully started.

Leo headed back into the library, where he was met by Abdul

"Hey, sorry I left yesterday, but you were taking your time."

"He just wanted some work, that's all." Leo lied.

"Are you sure he just wanted homework? He wouldn't have talked to you privately for that." Abdul interrogated. Leo thought it would be best that their encounter stayed between the Marco and him.

"He's always been a bit weird like that."

"He scares the hell out of me." Abdul remarked. "Someone told me they saw him with blood on his hands the other day."

Leo rolled his eyes, he highly doubted that one. The rumours seemed to be getting more and more ridiculous. "Are you sure that's what they saw. He's an artist, it was probably just paint."

"You know a lot about him." Abdul brought up, and Leo realised that Marco had never really opened up to too many people. He had no idea how he'd dig himself out of this one.

"Oh, yeah, I sat next to him in a few classes last year before he… left." Leo replied, avoiding eye contact with his friend.

"You seem closer than classmates."

"No, not really." Leo lied. "He just talks a lot."

"If you say so." Abdul was sure Leo was lying about that one. He knew there was definitely more to it, and he wasn't exactly thrilled his friend was lying to him, but he knew he probably didn't want to get involved if Marco was.

* * *

It was half way through the first hour of double English, and they had the joys of cover, which meant Leo had to deal with his mum being there.

He was just relieved Marco wasn't.

The class' attention was turned to the knock at the door, and Leo could've swore it was him jinxing things, as the blue haired, beanie wearing school psychopath walked in the door, with a coffee in hand.

He walked towards his seat, and he could see on his mum's face she wasn't impressed.

"And who are you?"

"Marco." The boy replied.

"Why are you so late?"

"I slept in, and my coffee machine broke. I have to get my fix somehow." Marco joked. The class sniggered, though Leo assumed they were laughing at him, not with him. At least he knew that Marco's unhealthy habit of coffee in the morning was still there.

"Well I'm sure making that time up over your brake won't be a problem."

Marco just narrowed his eyes at the teacher before getting on with his work half-heartedly; he was more interested in trying to drink his coffee before it went cold.

Olga knew the name Marco rang a bell, and then it hit her. What Leo had told her about him, and what he actually was, were two totally different things.

Leo wanted the ground to swallow him whole. He could see the look on his mum's face and she didn't look happy, and he knew she'd have a few words to say to Leo about his previous life choices.

* * *

"Marco, you need to go to the cooler."

Marco had hoped the supply teacher had forgotten about that, but apparently not. Sighing, knowing there was no way out of it; he nodded and made his way to the cooler. He'd finished the work, and break time was usually full of verbal abuse, so the cooler was probably one of the few places in school he could get some peace and quiet.

"Leo, stay here please."

Leo cringed as he knew exactly where this was going, and he just prepared for the onslaught.

"Marco is that the boy you told me about."

"Ages ago. We don't speak."

"Has he always been so…so… obnoxious?"

"Not so much before he left." Leo responded, remembering Marco before all this stuff happened. "Nobody really knows why he's like this now."

"Well, just keep away from him, he's bad news." Olga warned.

Leo nodded and headed out of the classroom.

"What did she want?" Abdul asked.

"Oh, nothing."

**AN; Weekly update ^-^ Sorry this is filler-ish, but it will be less filler, I promise, but I am working on another sotry too, so I hopefully will get that posted, so my time is split :D**

**See you next chapter xxx**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Waterloo Road or any of the characters in the story**

**Chapter 9**

"_Why is he even here?"_

"_I heard if you look, you can see blood on his hands."_

"_I thought Brandon was bad."_

It was the week of Lizzie's party, and Marco was sure the Universe was giving him the middle finger right now, and he was wondering how much longer he could deal with it all.

The name calling got more and more offensive, though the word psycho didn't really carry the same effect; their venom laced words were rotting his will to play nice.

"Move it." He snarled, as Lisa and Shaznay hung around his locker, with Carrie and Lizzie. He'd been given a locker as there was one spare, which was only because he was sick of all his school work being at home.

"Marco!" Lizzie exclaimed.

"Don't bother Lizzie. You hardly think he has manners."

"I don't, now fuck off." Marco muttered.

Lizzie looked at her friend with concern. Since Leo had told her about what had happened, Marco had barely spoken a word to her, or anyone else for that matter, and when he did it was rude and angry.

"That's no way to speak to a lady." Shaznay remarked.

"I really don't give a damn." Marco replied, obviously bored with the conversation. "Besides, isn't social suicide even speaking to me? Consider it a favour."

"We're only here because _she_ wanted to speak to you."

"Look, Marco, you're angry, I get it, but I didn't mean to pry, I was only trying to help."

"But you didn't." Marco replied, trying not to take it back seeing Lizzie's desperate face, she'd been trying to apologise, but he just got annoyed at her being overly cautious around him, as if he was a land mine, and any wrong move could set him off. "I don't need any help. I'm fine."

"Fine, just sort yourself out. You're embarrassing yourself." Lizzie replied, shaking her head as she joined the other girls, and walked off.

* * *

Leo had been avoiding Marco even more since their chat. It was definitely for the best that they didn't speak, but he wondered whether something was happening to him. Unlike last time, Marco wasn't lashing out so much; his anger seemed more constant, as if he didn't need to lash out, since he wasn't necessarily angry.

"So, Lizzie's party will be awesome."

"Yeah." Leo replied half-heartedly. "I'll only be there an hour or so, parties aren't really my thing."

"Don't act so glum, if you're lucky Lizzie might actually give you a chance."

"I highly doubt it." Leo replied sarcastically.

"Well no waiting around tonight, I've got my drink sorted."

"I have a bottle of vodka I might bring." Leo shrugged. "As long as I avoid champagne, I'm fine."

"Why?" Abdul just gave him a really confused look, and Leo remembered the pain he and Marco were in after drinking a bottle of champagne, the headache was one of the worst he'd ever had.

"Speaking from experience, champagne hangovers are really bad."

* * *

"Marco, can I speak to you, quickly before the bell goes?" Lizzie asked, pulling Marco to one side.

"What's up?"

"Look, I know this is really awkward, and I don't want to do this, but some people don't want you at the party."

Marco shrugged. "So what? They can get over it."

"The thing is I've had quite a few people say to me that if you go, they won't. Sorry Marco."

"What?" He asked; voice almost at a whisper.

"You can't…"

"I heard you Lizzie." He replied, voice void of emotion, "It's fine. I know you want this party to go well. I can have my own party of one."

"Marco…"

"…it's cool Lizzie." Marco lied. Finding out everyone hated him that much was pretty much the final nail in the coffin.

"You know I'm sorry, we can have our own party…"

"…don't embarrass yourself Lizzie." Marco shook his head. "Just make sure Dale can't take his eyes off you."

"Thanks for understanding." Lizzie smiled, finding it very difficult to believe that Marco was alright, but she knew not to push him too far.

* * *

"Do you think Lizzie and Marco will get together at the party?" Abdul asked while walking to English.

"No."

"Is someone jealous?" He asked, laughing.

"I don't like Lizzie." Leo confirmed.

"You say that but…"

"I don't like her." Leo snapped.

"Jeez, it's only a joke mate."

"Yeah well, it's never been funny." Leo sighed. "There's not a chance I like Lizzie, like none. She's a nice girl and everything but no way."

"You say no to every girl I ask about."

"Yeah, well I'm not really the best at giving opinions on that subject, am I?"

"I thought you said you've been with someone?"

"I have, but I've never had a _girlfriend_." Leo sighed, hoping Abdul would get the message.

"Oh, right. You should've just said." Abdul laughed. "I don't really care, you're my friend."

"Yeah, it's not that easy." Leo shrugged. "But thanks, I appreciate it."

Leo hated telling people, it never got easier, but he was starting to accept himself a bit more.

* * *

"Everybody fucking hates me." Marco hissed, staring at his reflection in the empty bathroom mirror. He didn't care that he was missing registration; he didn't care that he'd get in trouble. He just didn't care. His knuckles were white from how tight his hands were balled into fists.

He didn't know whether it was because it was the closest thing to him, or if his reflection was starting to annoy him, but Marco slammed his fist into the mirror, and he did it again and again, using more of his strength each time, continuing even though the mirror had cracked, tears were streaming down his face and his knuckles were bleeding.

Marco studied the crimson liquid on his hand. It hurt like a bitch, but he supposed it was better than breaking someone's nose and it wasn't anyone else's blood on his hands, but hell, he regretted that, so much.

"_I'm such an idiot."_

"Has anyone seen Marco? His car is in the car park, so he is here."

"He was here before registration." Lizzie spoke up.

Leo wasn't worried, he'd done it before and just hid out in the library, it was probably the case. He had no reason to worry; besides, he'd been a lot more than ten minutes late before.

"Sorry I'm late." A voice mumbled as they entered the classroom and the entire room's eyes were laid on his hand, as if the rumours were true.

Leo took back all his previous thoughts of having no reason to worry. If Marco had done that someone else, he was dangerous and needed to be detained, but if he'd done that to himself, he obviously wasn't the monster everyone thought him to be. Then, when he looked at his face, there was a small amount of redness around his eyes. Yes, Leo definitely took back that he wasn't going to worry about him.

"Marco, can I have a word please?" Miss Mulgrew asked. Marco just stood up and shuffled out of the classroom, leaving them to talk.

"Marco, what have you done to your hand?"

"I cut it."

"Yes, I can see that, but what did you do to cut your hand?"

"I…fell." He mumbled; Miss Mulgrew just looked at him in disbelief.

"You fell?" She questioned.

"Yeah, and cut my hand."

"If I find out you're lying to me Marco Fletcher, you'll be in serious trouble."

"I swear, nobody else got hurt, just me." Marco retorted, knowing fine well why she was asking that.

"It's just people's knuckles don't get like that when they fall."

"Well they do now. Can I get on with my work now?"

Mrs Mulgrew nodded and he headed back into the classroom with the other students staring.

* * *

"Come in." Mr Fitzgerald sighed; the final day of term was never quiet.

"Vaughn, have you heard much about Marco Fletcher recently."

"I know he's been a pain in the neck, why?"

"He walked into my classroom today with his hand covered in blood, claiming he fell."

"Really. I bet he failed to tell you the mirror in the boys' toilets was broken this morning. I knew taking him back was a bad idea."

"Do you want me to get him, or…"

"…No, it's the last day of term, just, make sure he's still on site, he can do a detention at lunch."

* * *

Detention.

It wasn't half as bad as people thought, in fact, Marco was beginning to like the cooler more than his lessons, and wondered why he didn't just do his work in this place instead of in the classroom, especially when it was empty.

Not that his sketch book was really work, but he was finding his sketch book was a better way to calm down than punching mirrors. He regretted that, a lot.

It felt as if Miss McFall was watching him like a hawk, as if he was about to commit some horrendous crime.

He heard people outside walking past the cooler talking about Lizzie's party, and a wave of envy hit him hard. He wasn't sure why Lizzie did what she did; it wasn't as if he was going to do anything but get drunk, like everyone else there. Now he had a bottle of Jägermeister and eight cans of energy drink to drink by himself.

He just prayed he didn't have any reason to need his car tomorrow, because he had full intentions of doing as many Jaeger bombs he could before he passed out.

"Miss McFall, Mr Fitzgerald wants to see Marco." Miss Hutchinson said, popping her head round the door.

Marco sighed, shoving his sketchbook in his bag, and flung it over his shoulder, following the young blonde teacher to the very familiar office.

As he entered, he saw Mr Fitzgerald and Miss Hutchinson standing there, and he knew that he was in trouble.

"If this is about the mirror, I'll pay for it to be replaced, just tell me how much I owe."

"You can't just pay away your problems Marco."

Miss Hutchinson's eyes widened at the head teacher's comment. She'd heard he was a problematic student, but surely speaking to him like that wasn't allowed.

"You're an artist as well, aren't you Marco?" Miss Hutchinson interjected; Mr Fitzgerald looked at her in confusion, wondering where she was going with this.

"I'd like to think so, yes." Marco replied sceptically.

"We'll cover the cost of the mirror if you do a bit of artwork for the school."

"Artwork, I'll need a bit more than that."

"We could have one of the walls outside done up, if that's okay with you Mr Fitzgerald."

"Fine, but you need to run sketches past either me or Miss Hutchinson before you even think about painting, or you'll be excluded for defacing school property, understood."

"Loud and clear."

"Now go."

As Marco made his way out of the office, he debated on going home, but decided an hour or two in the library wouldn't harm trying to get some ideas out there. Maybe all the noise and torment could give him some sort of inspiration. He was hardly a graffiti artist, but he'd prove to everyone he was more than their perception of him.

**AN: Sorry I didn'tupload, I was super busy last week, and was away Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so I needed some time to chill out, I hope you understand ^-^**

**The next chapter should be less filler-ish, apologies that it is quite slow, I'm working through this as best I can, but I'm not exactly feeling up to it all the time at the moment, so I will apologise in advance that chapters will not be as frequent.**

**See you next chapter xx**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Waterloo Road or any of the characters in the story**

**Chapter 10**

"No."

"No."

"Fuck it!"

Marco was sure these ideas were good in his head, but the paper was telling a completely different story.

The library was just about empty, and any other students were far away from him, so he could at least try and get some ideas down without too much hassle.

He knew most of the sixth form who could have, had gone home to prepare for Lizzie's party, and he was debating on whether he should go home himself.

* * *

Leo sat in GPD, waiting for the bell to ring so he could go home, and attempt to gather some motivation for this party he was forcing himself to go to.

"Lizzie, is Marco going tonight?" He heard a girl ask. Leo thought the question was a bit odd, the two were close, and of course she'd have him there.

"No, I… he… he's not invited." Lizzie stuttered, catching Leo off guard, _not invited_. Lizzie was the only person on his side, and she'd not invited him to the biggest party of the school year so far.

"Thank god, I didn't know if could go if he was, especially after English this morning, I heard he had a fight with a kid from Havelock and put him in hospital."

Leo just rolled his eyes, he knew Marco, and he rarely hurt people, physically. He acted tough, but he wasn't violent unless provoked.

When the bell finally rang for the lesson to end, Leo decided he needed some time in the library. The party didn't start until eight, and he had no intention on spending hours upon hours getting ready.

He walked into the library and noticed the small few who were still there were clustered in one corner, while Marco sat at a table with his sketchbook, cursing under his breath.

Leo sat at a different table and began typing up an English essay. He thought it would be best doing it now, rather than attempting to do it tomorrow while he was tired and potentially hungover.

He noticed the amount of paper around the bin, and assumed whatever Marco was working on, it wasn't going too great.

One by one, people got up to leave, until the only people left in the library were Leo and Marco. Both focused on entirely different things and the library was silent.

Suddenly, a loud alarm could be heard from outside. Marco's attention switched to the window, where he immediately got up, leaving all of his stuff. By the way he reacted, Leo got the idea it was probably his car alarm.

Finishing his essay and closing his laptop lid, Leo made his way over to Marco's sketchbook. He knew it wasn't right to be looking at other people's stuff, but curiosity got the better of him. He flicked through a few pages, and noticed how his style had changed since last year, it was a bit darker, but his artwork had improved greatly, obviously his passion for art had only grown. Leo looked at one piece in particular, it was almost a self-portrait, but half of the picture was normal and human like, when the other was a monster. The detail was something Leo looked at, with the monster looking horrifically real, and the words littering the background were words he'd heard people use to refer to him since he'd left.

Leo turned the page back to the sketch he'd been working on, and decided it was probably best to get away from his sketchbook, knowing how pissed off he'd be if he saw him going through his stuff, only he'd been gone about twenty minutes, and the alarm had died down a while ago.

Venturing outside, he saw Marco sitting on the bonnet of his car with his head in his hands. His car had been scrawled on by someone and the windscreen smashed.

As much as Leo knew going over would be a bad idea, he did in anyway, knowing he'd probably just get an earful, but he couldn't just stand there.

"If you've come to laugh, fuck off."

"No, I… you'd left all your stuff…"

"I don't need your damn sympathy." He snapped, running his hands through his hair. "Sorry, this isn't your fault."

"You should tell someone."

"Who? Your Dad wouldn't give a damn. The car's so old there's no point in fixing it, but I've only had it a couple months. My parents are going to go ape shit."

"It's not completely dead though, is it?"

"Yeah, unless I fancy driving without a windscreen and breaks. I knew I wasn't anyone's favourite person, but damn, if I thought it would be this bad I'd have asked my parents for a lot more than this piece of shit and a camera."

"So you weren't going to come back?"

"Why would I?" Marco asked. "The place is dead."

Leo felt a twinge of sadness, he was confused about the whole thing, and he assumed he had no feelings for Marco anymore, but sometimes he definitely thought otherwise.

"Don't you have a party to go to?" Marco asked, catching Leo off guard. He'd forgotten about the party for a while, but the more he thought about it, the less he wanted to go.

"You know me; I'm not a party person."

"Come on, you know the whole school's going to that thing."

"You're not though, are you?" Leo remembered the conversation that happened in GPD, but the look on Marco's face said it all. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

"Nah, fuck them." Marco shrugged, glancing at his hand. "They don't know what they're missing."

"That's more like you." Leo laughed.

"Yeah, I suppose taking to the only person not invited to the end of term party has its perks."

The two fell silent. Leo kept glancing at Marco's hand, he still wasn't sure of the exact story of what happened, and he really didn't know if he wanted to.

"How come you didn't tell anyone?" Marco replied breaking the silence. Leo was surprised by his question because he did, and that didn't end well.

"I told Lizzie, that's it"

"I know that. I mean afterwards. I lost it, I wanted to break your nose, and you didn't tell anyone?"

"I thought about it." Leo admitted. "But I thought about all the shit people said about you, you didn't need the drama, besides, it's not really my secret to tell."

"I see."

"So why didn't you do it?" Leo asked, though Marco didn't quite get the question.

"What?"

"You just said you wanted to break my nose, you could have done, quite easily."

"I chickened out." Marco sighed. "I couldn't do it."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"It isn't?" Marco replied sarcastically. "I probably should've tried a little to keep my cool."

"I said some stuff I didn't mean too." Leo admitted, looking at the ground. "I'm sorry."

Marco's eyes widened, he wasn't expecting an apology; an acknowledgement was enough. Clearing his throat, he nodded and smiled. "I guess I should apologise too. I was a bit of a dickhead."

"You should probably get your stuff, before they take it to lost property." Leo reminded.

Marco jumped down from the bonnet of his car and headed back to the library to get his stuff. He supposed it gave him time to contemplate what had just happened. He'd finally had a proper conversation with Leo, and after worrying so much about it, it wasn't _that _bad.

He was worried more about his car, knowing Mr Fitzgerald wouldn't be impressed with it being in the car park for two weeks, but with it rendered completely dangerous to drive, Marco decided he wasn't going to attempt to move it, and in all honesty, he knew fixing it wouldn't be worth it, the car was half dead when he got it.

"Marco, what are you still doing here? I thought you'd be away like the rest of the sixth form"

He was hoping to go unseen, but alas, he'd been spotted by Miss Hutchinson and Miss Mulgrew on their way to the staff room.

"Nah, I'm a bit busy packing. Well, have a good Christmas."

Marco immediately made his way back outside, surprised to see that Leo had waited for him. A nostalgic grin grew on his face as we walked down the steps.

"Are you avoiding the party _that _much?"

Leo jumped, finally noticing Marco's presence. "You could say that. I don't fancy getting wasted."

"I do." Marco mumbled under his breath.

"Plus, I thought you could use some company, and I thought you'd try and drive home."

"You think I'm that reckless… actually, don't answer that. Won't your Dad be pissed if he thinks you're eve speaking to me? I'm hardly his favourite person, especially after today."

"Probably, but he's not here."

Marco took one last look at his car. "I suppose I haven't had chips from the chip shop for a while."

* * *

"These really are the best chips from anywhere in Greenock." Marco wrapped his hands around the hot chip packet, the grease stinging his cut, making him wince.

"I don't want to be nosy, but what _actually_ happened to your hand? I've heard about three different stories; two involve you putting someone in hospital."

"Nah, I punched the mirror in the toilets, in hindsight it's, pretty stupid idea. No hospitals involved."

"You spent more time in hospital than out the end of last term."

Marco grimaced at the thought, pushing the thoughts out of his mind as best as he could.  
"This is so strange. I was gone for so long, but everything here is exactly the same."

"It's been pretty boring since you left." Leo admitted, shivering slightly in the cold Scotland air.

"Yeah, except it's like the artic round here. I've been warmer skiing." Marco grumbled.

Both boys found it strange how comfortable they still felt around each other, they'd hardly spoken, and they'd said pretty horrible things to each other, but it was as if they couldn't just go their spate ways unless they were opposite ends of the country.

"You're definitely procrastinating from going to that party."

"Is it that obvious?" Leo asked, wishing he could just say he was ill and just not go.

"Yeah." Marco chuckled. "And since I'm the only person not going, I'm not a good choice of company if you want motivation to go, but you probably should at least show your face so people can't complain, plus, free booze."

"Yeah, which is probably spiked punch and cheap cider."

"Well there are no drugs, apparently. I got told I wasn't allowed anything."

"Good. My Dad would be ecstatic if I got home high as a kite."

"Come on, you're not even tempted?"

"I've never really thought about it." Leo admitted. His attention switched to his phone buzzing. He checked his message, and surprisingly, it was from Justin.

"_Where are you? You can't still be doing school work on party night?"_

"I should get going." Leo got up from the cold bench unenthusiastically. He knew where he'd rather be.

'_Damn it Leo, you can't do this again.'_ He tried telling himself.

"Yeah, me too." Marco replied with his teeth chattering, whishing he had more chips to warm his hands.

As the two made walked, both felt slightly nostalgic, remembering all the times they'd walked that way, the same way all the time. It reminded them both of the good times before any of the drama unfolded, before people got too involved.

"Well… Have a good Christmas." Marco sighed walking away.

"Yeah, you too." Leo replied, unknowing if Marco had even heard him, but he was happy he'd made amends, kind of.

Marco may have changed, but he was sure not all of them were for the worst.

**AN: omg this took so long to write so sorry, I had such a block! Plus I've been playing a ton of video games and generally getting distracted, and working on a new WR story with a character that is super-duper interesting and hopefully you'll love them as much as I do!**

**Again, so sorry D:**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Waterloo Road or any of the characters in the story**

**Chapter 11**

"Wow! You actually showed up." Lizzie giggled dragging Leo through her door. "Get yourself a drink."

Leo was positive Lizzie had already had enough to drink by the way she was swaying, but he followed her into the kitchen, where he was relieved to find Abdul and a few others.

"Took you long enough." Abdul joked.

"Parties aren't really my thing." Leo shrugged sipping at the punch that Lizzie had pretty much forced into his hand.

"Lighten up." Lizzie laughed. "Have any of you guys seen Dale?"

Everyone just shook their heads, and Lizzie disappeared into the sea of people in search for Dale.

"She's right mate, have a bit of fun." Abdul sighed.

Leo just ignored his friend's comment. He felt kind of bad for leaving Marco when he did, especially since he was way more of a partier than he was.

'_You shouldn't care Leo, you're being civil; it shouldn't change anything.'_

"Yeah, you're right." Leo agreed, pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind. "I'll get some more to drink."

* * *

Marco sat staring at his reflection, having just finished talking with his parents on the phone, having to tell them his car was a complete write off, and he was heading to London earlier because of him having to travel by train instead. He was lucky enough to be able to get a train for the following morning, but it was early. Marco hated mornings, and this would be even worse, especially since he'd not packed. Not only was thins a hindrance, but he'd just washed the bleach out his hair, and now no longer had time to put the blue dye over the top without having to just pull an all-nighter, so he had to deal with his peroxide blonde hair over Christmas.

He was trying not to think about the fact the entire school was out partying while he was sat at home in sweatpants and a hoodie, writing off any plans of drinking alone, considering the time of his train in the morning.

Making his way through to pack for the holidays, it was dawning on him just how alone he really was. It had been a long time since he'd felt so alone, and he hated it, but he knew he was far too proud and stubborn to say he'd been an ass and try to make amends with people.

All he could do was play it out, and eventually get back to London permanently. It seemed as if it was the only place he'd ever be able to call home. Greenock was never going to be his scene, and he was finding out, Greenock felt a very similar way.

* * *

Leo was sure he'd had enough to drink. He was still fully aware of his actions, but he knew he wasn't exactly sober either, and he'd somehow been roped into playing a drinking game of 20 questions with Lizzie, Lisa, Abdul, Dale, Rhiannon, Darren and Lenny. The game was pretty simple, 20 questions, but if you don't want to answer the question, you do a shot of some unnaturally bright blue substance that Lizzie held in her hand.

Rhiannon had just finished, and she'd been brutally honest, to nobody's surprise. Lisa had gone first, and she was a little more cautious of answering questions, and Lizzie had been avoiding a few questions herself.

"Leo, you should have a go."

"No… I'm just watching." Leo insisted.

"Not anymore." Lizzie laughed. "Okay, what's first?"

The first few questions where pretty easy to answer, and there was nothing too uncomfortable but quite quickly, the questions where making Leo feel more and more uneasy.

"Why did you and Marco break up?" Rhiannon asked.

Leo just took a shot glass and downed it with little hesitation, making everyone just make it even more awkward.

"Does he really have loads of money, or is it all lies?"

"So, is Marco like an exception, or do you like fancy other boys?"

Leo was sure he'd already done more shots than anyone else and he still had a question left, and he prayed it was one that he could answer.

"Do you still fancy him?" Lisa asked.

"No." Leo answered. "I don't."

"Well that's 20 questions." Lizzie spoke up. "Leo it doesn't hit you straight away, but all those shots are definitely going to hit you soon, this is strong shit."

"Sure." Leo sighed, sitting down, taking his half-finished drink and getting ready to see somebody else completely humiliated. If this is what people did for fun, Leo really wasn't interested. He planned to get out of there as quickly as soon as he could.

* * *

"Abdul, have you seen my brother?" Justin asked.

"He's just left, I told him he wasn't in a state to walk on his own, but he wouldn't listen to me." Abdul replied.

"Thanks." Justin sighed, knowing not to get too worked up. He quickly sent Leo a text and got back to the party.

* * *

Marco was awoken by a knock at his door, and he was instantly ready to make someone pay for waking him up. He half-heartedly left the comfort of his bed to see who was knocking at his door at such a ridiculous time.

He opened the door, ready to punch someone, and was confused as to why Leo was leaving against his door.

"Leo, what the fuck are you doing here?" Marco sighed.

"Things were finally going back to normal and then you decided to go back and mess everything up." Leo slurred. "I can't hate you, and I don't know why."

Marco just sighed. "Leo, you've had far too much to drink. You should go home."

"My dad will kill me." Leo complained, reaching out to touch Marco's shoulder.

"That's not my problem." Marco snapped taking a step back. "Here." He sighed handing him a ten pound note. "At least get yourself a taxi home, you can barely stand up."

"I can't take your money."

"No, I need to fucking sleep, and I'll pay you to leave me the fuck alone so I can at least catch my train, Jesus fucking Christ. Take the money." Marco then quickly called for a taxi, and handed Leo a cup of water.

"Why are you being nice to me?" Leo asked.

"I'm a human being, Leo." Marco rolled his eyes.

"Look Marco, we played 20 questions at the party, and someone asked me why me and you broke up, but I don't even know. Why did we? Like, we didn't have a big argument or anything."

"I'm not talking to you about this." Marco stated bluntly. "You need to think a little, because I know you wouldn't be saying the bullshit sober, so don't embarrass yourself."

"But I was just…"

"…No. Your taxi's pulling in; get yourself some sleep, because I really wouldn't want to be you tomorrow. Have a good holiday, okay."

"Yeah, you too."

**AN: So sorry updates are slow at the moment, I've just started up college, and I'm quite busy university hunting and stuff at the minute, so I will write on my days off, but I have a lot to juggle at the minute :(**

**See you all next chapter xxx **


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